European Commission - Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology

10/31/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/31/2024 07:58

Commission opens formal proceedings against Temu under the Digital Services Act

Today, the Commission has opened formal proceedings to assess whether Temu may have breached the Digital Services Act (DSA) in areas linked to the sale of illegal products, the potentially addictive design of the service, the systems used to recommend purchases to users, as well as data access for researchers.

Today's decision follows preliminary analyses of the risk assessment report provided by Temu at the end of September 2024, the replies to the Commission's formal requests for information on 28 June 2024 and 11 October 2024, as well as of information shared by third parties. The Commission also relied on information shared through the cooperation mechanism with national authorities under the European Board of Digital Services Coordinators, in particular with the Irish Digital Services Coordinator.

More specifically, the investigation will focus on the following areas:

  • The systems Temu has in place to limit the sale of non-compliant productsin the European Union. Among others, it concerns systems designed to limit the reappearance of previously suspended rogue traders, known to have been selling non-compliant products in the past, as well as systems to limit the reappearance of non-compliant goods.
  • The risks linked to the addictive design of the service, including game-like reward programmes, and the systems Temu has in place to mitigate the risks stemming from such addictive design, which could have negative consequences to a person's physical and mental well-being.
  • The compliance with the DSA obligations linked to how Temu recommends content and products to users. This includes the requirement to disclose the main parameters used in Temu's recommender systems and to provide users with at least one easily accessible option that is not based on profiling.
  • The compliance with the DSA obligation to give researchers access to Temu's publicly accessible data.

Read the full press release.

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